In
June 2003, cruise ship MV
Discovery, carrying a number
of Russian Convoy veterans
made a 'RETURN
TO
MURMANSK, A CRUISE BACK IN
TIME",
and I was fortunate to be
invited as guest speaker.
We sailed from Harwich for
the Kola Inlet and
Murmansk, visiting a
variety of Norwegian ports
both on the voyage out and
back. The North Sea and
the Norwegian coast had
all played significant
parts in both World Wars,
and I took the opportunity
to cover elements of the
First World War, as well
as the Norwegian
Campaign in the
Second as background to
the Russian
convoys themselves.

Showing
how the campaigns of the
Russian Front related to
the ups and downs of the
Russian convoys was an
interesting challenge,
before tackling some of
the major convoy events
- PQ.17,
PQ.18,
Battle
of the Barents Sea
and the sinking of Scharnhorst
and Tirpitz.
Finally, these same
waters would have seen
even more activity had
the Cold War between the
West and the then Soviet
Union hutted up, and so
a brief mention was made
of what might have
become World
War 3! This then
is the material I
prepared.

Gordon
Smith, Naval-History.Net

Photographs
are mainly courtesy of Steve
Johnson of Cyberheritage
(CH), Michael Pocock of Maritime Quest
(MQ), David Page of NavyPhotos(NP), Peter Swarbrick
of Ships
Pictures (SP), US Naval Historical
Centre (US)
and their contributors.
(Each image is acknowledged
by the abbreviation for the
main source and name of the
individual contributor if
appropriate). My thanks to
all of them.